


"How Did All This Happen?"- A Memoire by one Marinette Dupain-Cheng ft. the Illustrious Woes of Teenage Crime Fighters

by legends_live_in_memories



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Maribat-Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Brief mention of other characters - Freeform, Canon-Typical Violence, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, follow me on tumblr :), my tumblr is legends-live-in-memories, no salt, tumblr is hiding my posts in the tags so im here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:34:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28205421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/legends_live_in_memories/pseuds/legends_live_in_memories
Summary: Marinette should not have accepted Constantine's offer. Now she was traveling across the world in search of magical artifacts because he can't trust the Justice League.And look, their team of protégés just arrived.Oh Joy.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Chloé Bourgeois, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Chloé Bourgeois & Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Luka Couffaine & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Kagami Tsurugi, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Damian Wayne
Comments: 37
Kudos: 353





	1. People Fucked Up and It's All Marinette's Mess to Clean Up I

This was _not_ how Marinette planned for her night to go. Granted, she also could not envision it going literally any other way. The woes of making a deal with the hellraiser himself, John Constanine, she supposes. She truly hoped Adrien was having a much better time than her with his cousin in London. After the circus that was the past three years, he deserved some reprieve, even if it was with his bratty doppelganger. Regardless, Marinette. Was. Not. Pleased. No matter how many times she thinks over her plan, recalculates every step and decision, she could not fathom this night ending well for her, or anyone really, but mostly her. And no amount of old Ladybug or Guardian luck could help her. Now, if one were to wonder what kind of tragedy had befallen Marinette on this disgraceful night, a brief history of the last three months could enlighten such a person. Or better yet, let’s start at the beginning. The Real Beginning.

So, things existed. _Obviously._ First there was nothing, and then, _something._ And as more things began to exist, as new schools of knowledge and concepts and ideas began to, well, exist, Kwamis formed as well. Each Kwami was the physical manifestation of these ideas or abstracts. Creation was the first, coupled with Destruction. And as more things began to exist, more things began needing to be protected. Thus, the Kwami of Protection. This went on. For a while. Soon thereafter there were Kwamis of all types. Jubilation, Time, Strength, etc, etc, and etc. Now these Kwamis did not linger in one spot. They roamed across the far stretches of existence and interacted with the life they found.

Some Kwamis decided to form a magical pact which intergalactic historians would later dub _the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum_ . Sounds familiar? The Kwamis themselves were completely blissfully unaware of this title, lest they would have explained to these beings, Maltusians they were called, that they were not in fact, electromagnetic but more so a part of the _Powers that Be_ . Kind of. But this side-story involves the formation of a few universally known Lantern Corps, and _that_ is a barrel of monkeys our exasperated narrator does not want to touch with a ten-foot pole. Or ever.

Other Kwamis, who stuck close to what would become known as the Milky Way, were discovered by a mage who granted them the ability to interact with humans. This mage— and Marinette was silently cursing his descendants, herself included, for if it weren’t for this absolute madlad, none of the subsequent events of this night would have transcribed—had bound the Kwamis to magical jewelry called Miraculouses. An interesting side effect of these Kwamis being bound to the miraculouses was that the wearer could call upon the powers of the Kwamis for their own usage. The mage feared what could become of the world if this kind of power became so easily accessible, so he created the Order of the Guardians. The Order was dedicated to training young mages to protect, wield and harvest the powers of the miraculouses. The Order swore to true neutrality; wishing not to impose their will on one side or the other, to maintain balance and to not upset the natural order of the world. 

This went surprisingly well for a few millennia, that is, of course, if you ignore the sinking of Atlantis, the extinction of the dinosaurs, the Black Plague, the creation of the Lazarus Pits, Pompeii, to name a few completely egregious instances—not necessarily in order of course—and well, the point stands that it could have been astronomically worse. Until it was. 

One young mage and Guardian in training had caused the downfall of almost the entire Order of the Guardians. All the centuries of history, teachings, artifacts and even the people at the head temple, were lost to the calamity. Dozens of Miraculous Boxes were lost, destroyed in the fray. The Kwamis themselves were relatively unaffected, being immortal and all, but the magical jewelry binding them to the earth were broken, thus those Kwamis were lost to mankind once again. Only one singular box, and the young mage himself, survived. The new Guardian of one miraculous box was left to scour the earth in solitude. Well, about as much solitude one could have with 17 pocket gods as company. The fact that the only box that survived was missing two more miraculouses caused the already stressed guardian to grey further. But that tidbit of information would be a problem for later. And for someone else entirely too. _Oh joy._

But before _that_ sequence of events, aptly named “Marinette’s Trial by Fire,” however, the young guardian had a couple more life mistakes to make before he reached his internal quota apparently. Rather than travel to another sector of the Order on the other side of the earth, this young mage stumbled upon another organization, one similar in architecture and hierarchy but a pendulum swing in the total moral opposite. Yes, that’s right, the guardian found himself upon the League of Shadows, led by Ra’s Al Ghul in his endeavor of global cleansing; by acts of ecoterrorism, but who sweats the small stuff, right? There, the young guardian, who adopted the name of Wang Fu, met his first love Ming Hong and they had a son. The son had a daughter he named Mei. Now Mei was only a few weeks younger than Ra’s Al Ghul’s grandson, Damian. Now with an appropriate heir, and someone to procreate with said heir, Ra’s Al Ghul gained a special interest in the small Fu family that originally flew under the radar of the League. 

Now this is where things continue to go downhill, but not until much, much later in this story. Ra’s Al Ghul, despite his radical ambitions, was particularly good at playing the long game and understood when he couldn’t accomplish a task directly. This being said, he recognized that, due to prolonged exposure to the Lazarus Pits, his soul could not bear the strain of being a wielder of a miraculous and so he waited. Waited until a suitable heir was sired and could copulate with an heir to the guardian of the miraculous box, desiring to create a bloodline of genetically suitable successors and wielders who were loyal to him and his cause. 

Ra’s ordered for the Fu family to have a place on his court and ordered for Mei Fu to be trained in mastering the secrets of the miraculous. And master she did. By age 6 she was fluent in the coded language of the magical text, or as fluent a 6 year old can be in any language, and she had mastered 7 out the 17 miraculouses. By age 10 she was as skilled as the grandson of the Demon Head in combat and could handle simultaneous wear of 3 miraculouses. Her training, however, had to be put on hold as _somebody_ thought usurping the Demon Head was of the utmost importance that glorious Tuesday and staged a coup. She wished Deathstroke had lost more than an eye that day, but a girl can dream she supposes. Mei and her grandfather were separated from the rest of the League and journeyed west. Somehow they ended up in Paris, France. After one too many run ins with the authorities, Mei was removed from her grandfather, who was deemed too unfit to support her. It was a miracle he wasn’t deported. 

Mei was put into protective custody where she resided until she was 13. Recently adopted, and thoroughly done with the plebeians of her daily encounters, Mei Fu became Marinette Dupain-Cheng, daughter of the best bakers in Paris. All was well and good for the new Dupain-Cheng until the start of the new school year. 

She met her grandfather again. And _apparently_ he had a job for her and her soon to be new partner.

Hawkmoth, that bitch, had somehow acquired the two last surviving miraculouses and the only surviving grimoire and thought domestic terrorism was on the agenda for the next few years. Why? Because investing in a family therapist was too much of an inconvenience for local recluse, Gabriel McFucking Agreste, Marinette would shortly learn. 

After dealing with all of _that_ and juggling between her reignited guardian training, and ‘normal’ girl life—because her parents don’t know that she’s a magical girl in the making—, Marinette was ready to sleep for a thousand years. Or commit murder. Whichever gave her enough serotonin to complete her current passion project. But, alas, no rest for the totally-over-it or however that saying goes. Because after declaring Paris safe once again, sending off her brother-in-arms, Adrien Agreste, to family in London (marginally decent but anything beats the abusive prick of a sperm donor), in waltz one drunken John Constantine.

Ah yes. Him. That absolute bastard who doesn’t deserve nice things in life. That guy.

This unpleasantry approached Master Fu and Marinette, who has been regulated to errand-girl in lieu of training, with a job that he proclaimed that only one blessed with magic, and specifically NOT connected to the Justice League could accomplish. Apparently, a group called the Cult of the Kobra resided on Santa Prisca and was in possession of a dangerous magical artifact that had been the backbone of their organization for years. Constantine came to them asking them for assistance in retrieving it as the Justice League could not interfere in the Caribbean due to new UN legislation. It was a mission of utmost urgency for he feared the cult leader, Kobra himself, was planning on enacting a ritual that could bring calamity to Earth. Which is just what the doctor ordered. Not. In exchange, he agreed to add to her magical training as while master Fu was good, he was still young when he ran away from his problems the first time and thus was limited in his magical knowledge.

That was three months ago. Three months of planning, training, and convincing her parents that letting her go on an extended retreat for an undetermined amount of time with her mostly absent biological grandfather was totally reasonable for the seventeen year old to do. Like, come on. She’s almost old enough to drink, almost ready for university and has been praised for her independence and self-sufficiency for years. She’ll be fine is what she told her parents and she was almost able to convince herself of that too. She would be perfectly fine. Right?

Wrong.

Marinette was anything but fine. She was stressed, she was tired and she was abso-fucking-lutely pissed at anything that even breathed in her direction. Why? Well that brings us back to the beginning of the story when everything on this mission did not go according to plan. So here she was along what was once upon a time the eastern coastline of Santa Prisca. Oh and look. The Junior Justice League has arrived.

_Purrrrfect._


	2. People Fucked Up and Now It's All Marinette's Mess to Clean Up II

Marinette knew how  _ she  _ ruined the eastern coastline, but for all that is magical she could not fathom how that team of hero proteges managed to completely decimate the western side. She knew they were capable of it though, Constantine had warned her that they had an interesting habit of bending, if not outright breaking, the rules and legislation of the UN. He had also warned her that the group of Justice League mini-me’s had a unique calling card. The symphony of everything going to total  _ shit _ in the background was the declaration of their presence on the island. She hasn’t even seen them from her new cliffside perch but she knew they were there by the distinct sounds of explosions. God, she hoped that super son wasn’t there. And she really hoped he didn’t get his indestructible hands on the magical dagger and destroyed it. It was one thing to return from this mission empty handed. It was an entirely different kettle of fish to return and join her grandfather in having “Broken a magical artifact” added to her list of crimes against the universe. Adrien would never let her live it down. No,  _ Chloe  _ would never let her live that down. She probably would put it on her headstone or something. 

Deciding she has wasted enough time, Marinette began enacting one of her contingency plans in hopes of salvaging this night. She had brought the Tiger, the Horse and the Cat miraculouses for this mission, fearing that a Ladybug Cure would bring too much attention to her and her family. She was right in that fear because reconstructing two coastlines would not fly under international radar.

She called upon the magic of the Tiger, camouflaging with the scenery as she made her descent back to where Kobra himself hopefully still was. 

She found him making his escape from the hellfest that was once their base of operation, followed by two other members. Marinette begrudgingly gives her thanks for the intruding hero team who distracted the cult from her presence and created enough wreckage that forced the cult members into separating. Sneaking up from behind, she jumped on the shoulders of the one furthest back. A swift jab to his throat, and Marinette was using his falling body as a springboard to kick the second cultist. At this point Kobra was aware of her presence and tried to attack her. Keeping the magical dagger on his person, he moved to grab Marinette by her hair. Extending the claws from her panja bracelet, Marinette slashed Kobra by his outstretched hands and used her semi-sentient tiger’s tail to retrieve the dagger. Before Kobra could regain his bearings, Marinette merged the Tiger and the Horse and made a hasty escape to her hideout.

She was greeted to the sight of her grandfather who Marinette believed was entirely too relaxed, enjoying some mint tea as he watched the night sky be curtained by smoke mushrooms from the nearby island. He was reclined in one of the couches in their AirBnB back in Trinidad. She dropped her transformations, Roaar and Kaalki flying to the kitchenette. Plagg slowly came out of Marinette’s purse and pointedly avoided her gaze. So the hellcat  _ did  _ have a guilty conscience, she lamented. Who knew? Apparently accidentally sneezing from the sand on the beach of Santa Prisca, and leaving behind a new cliff, was not one of the Destruction god’s finer moments. If he had any. 

“Don’t tell Tikki,” he began. And look, actual names, he must have been really embarrassed if that’s how he’s referring to his counterpart. 

“Don’t tell me what?” The answering scream Plagg released was actually comical and Marinette decided to be merciful. “Don’t worry Tiks, just a hiccup in the mission but all is well now.” Plagg looked at Marinette like he was about to lay worship to her for not selling him out. He took it in stride and joined the other Kwamis on the counter, already with a cheese wedge in hand.

“You did well, Mei,” her grandfather began. “I will report to Constantine and we will discuss further in the morning. For now get some sleep.” That was a dismissal if Marinette ever heard one so she placed the panja bracelet and the glasses, the tiger and horse miraculouses, back in the box and retreated to her room. A quick shower and a call to her parents later, Marinette was left awake in her room. Bored.

Plagg soon joined her, and despite his earlier reservations, he was brimming with chaotic energy. He had an idea and nothing spelt trouble faster than Plagg’s ideas. Apparently Plagg was curious about what the other young heroes were even doing on the island and wanted to know more. Now Marinette had half a mind to tell him to go by himself and leave her out of it. But she was kind of curious too. They weren’t after the dagger, that much she figured, or else Constantine would have had them go for it instead. So why  _ were _ they there? A voice that sounded painfully like Kagami in her head told her not to be bullheaded and leave well enough alone.   
  


Ignoring that advice, Marinette went to the den to retrieve the Tiger and the Horse again, the two most suitable for reconnaissance missions. Plagg, of course, would still be accompanying her for it was his shitty idea anyways. 

“Going somewhere?”

The two turned to come face to face with Wayzz, Tikki and Master Fu, all wearing matching faces of disappointment but not surprise.

“We were just going to stake out the island again, figure out what the other hero team were up to.” Marinette was not going to quiver under their gazes. No. Nope. Her maman may not have been an assassin, but she still didn’t raise a weak bitch. Hell, she shadowed one of the most feared assassins for her more formative years. She. Would. Not. Break.

“Why?”

“It was Plagg’s idea.”  _ She broke.  _

“HEY!” No offense to Plagg, but he was the only one out of the two of them that was immortal, he could survive Tikki’s ire. 

“It’s not a bad idea, Master,” bless Kaalki and all their endeavors. “If the hero team were not after the dagger, but still after the Cult of the Kobra, investigating would provide valuable insight to what plans the cult had for the dagger in the first place. And perhaps, allow us to put in cautionary measures to prevent the cult from finding other magical means to meet their ends.”

“Yeah, what they said.” Marinette wasn’t all in favor of extending the mission if they did find anything concerning, but she committed to this idea and she’s going to see it through. Logical rational and self-preservation be damned. 

  
  
  



	3. Let it Be Known that Damian Thought This was a Bad Idea I

In the middle of intercepting the Cult of the Kobra, the leader himself managed to sneak away into the foliage. Damian, followed by Beast Boy, made chase and tried to go after Kobra. Hopefully, they could capture him for an interrogation if Red Robin and Blue Beetle failed in information retrieval. The two lost sight of Kobra and two of his members until they found them in a clearing close to the east coast. What they also found was the tail end of a, well,  _ tail _ disappearing into a blue portal of sorts and Kobra clutching his now bleeding arms. Beast Boy, now as a cheetah, charged at Kobra and subdued him while Damian tried to make sense of what he saw.

“We got what we came for. Let’s go, Delta Squad,” Red Robin’s voice chimed in his ear. “Negative,” he began his reply. “We weren’t the only ones on the island. Some _ thing  _ attacked Kobra and disappeared.”

“If whatever it is disappeared then we can’t do anything about it, Robin.” “But-”

“Head back to the rendezvous point and leave Kobra behind.” Red Robin continued giving his orders and Damian loathed to comply. He wasn’t a fan of leaving loose ends untied. 

From underneath Beast Boy’s body, Kobra began mumbling about a dagger, some artifact that was his to claim. Damian, not one to miss valuable information, began to approach Kobra. He, still wiggling from under the cheetah, began telling some story about how this specific dagger was to grant him the abilities and magic of the Shéquán or Snake Fist. Damian locked eyes with Beast Boy, who looked just as confused yet intrigued as Damian felt. 

“Where did you find this dagger? And who took it from you?” Damian wasn’t going to let this go, even at the expense of getting chewed out by Nightwing at the mission debriefing. Problems for future him and all. 

“Some girl in a black and purple suit took it. Came out of nowhere and used her tail to take it from me, you know, after she left me with  _ these.” _ Kobra emphasized his marred arms that bore twin claw marks. Damian paid no attention to the latter part of that and fixated on the first sentence. Black and purple bodysuit. Sentiate tail. Disappeared into a blue portal.  _ Claws.  _ Suddenly, Damian wanted  _ nothing  _ to do with this mission. He already did not want to come and get caught by nearby authorities for rule breaking, and given the state of the coastlines who knew when they would be here. But more importantly, he wanted nothing to do with anything that could risk him crossing paths with  _ her _ . 

“We need to go.” He interrupted Kobra’s fantastical tale of how he planned on becoming some all powerful snake and focused intently on Beast Boy. “We need to go and leave him and meet up with the others.  _ Now.”  _ He wished Beast Boy didn’t pick on how desperate he was to get far away from here as possible but clearly the universe had it out for him.

“You okay, Rob? Lookin’ kinda pale.” 

“Just leave him and come on. We’ve wasted enough time already.” The sooner they leave the sooner the threat of crossing paths with  _ her  _ lessens.

“If you say so, but I get to tell Red Robin about this ‘Snake Fist’ thing.”

“You can tell him about how the goddamn universe was made for all I care, just go!” Patience, and pretending he wasn’t self-imploding, clearly, was not on the agenda for dear Boy Wonder. Apparently, just the mere thought of  _ her _ was enough for him to lose his carefully crafted air of calm, cool and collected.

The two disappeared into the forest, heading to where Bioship was waiting with the rest of Delta Squad. Damian was silent the entire ride back, though due to his naturally prickly disposition, no one really chalked it up to something odd and left him to stew in his distress. Small mercies, he supposes. Around him was filled with the voice of Beast Boy as he retold the story of Kobra’s desire for the dagger.

It went a little something like this:

Long before humans walked the earth, animals operated in their own social order. Once people began emerging, they wanted to interact with the animals and join in the already established social order. To achieve this, humans began entrapping the spirits of the animals in magical artifacts that granted the wearer the ability to turn into the desired animal. The masters of these animal spirits passed on their knowledge onto other humans, and thus the birth of many martial arts techniques and selection of animals as the faces of gods in some cultures.

Of these magical artifacts, the dagger that Kobra acquired was said to grant him the ability to achieve his ‘true’ form, a snake. He would also be granted full mastery of the Xiaolin technique of the ‘Snake Fist.’ Wondergirl’s question of whether Kobra was a very dedicated furry appropriately went ignored. Beast Boy’s retelling of Kobra’s story ended with the mention of the girl who stole the dagger from him and what she was wearing.

“Do you think she knows more about these animal spirits? I mean a fully functioning tail is alluding to something, right?” 

“Not sure. I mean, Beast Boy also has a functioning tail and he knows nothing.” Beast Boy obviously took offence to this.

“Whoever she is she must either be a meta or use magic. And if she’s invested enough to go after the leader of the Cult of the Kobra, we have to approach finding her with caution.” Damian takes back almost every bad thing he has ever said about his older brother. Red Robin, for once, was the voice of reason and Damian could not agree more with his warning. Hell, he would prefer to not have to approach her at all but clearly, beggars can’t be choosers. Damian hopes that whoever decided on that saying is having a rotten day in hell.

  
  


Now that Delta Squad was back at the Hub, as Beast Boy has taken to calling it, the entire Team was going over everything they learned from the mission. Damian, while not one for self-sabotage, was actively not helping in finding the connection between the magical dagger, the magical girl and the Kobra-Venom manufacturing the cult was overseeing. Instead, he was at the far back wall praying to every god who didn’t hold some grudge against him that this mission would not have him or the Team cross paths with his magical murderous ex-fiancee. Hoping that him being a traitor to the League would be enough to annul his engagement and derail his grandfather’s schemes was more wishful thinking Damian thought he was capable of. 

But a guy can dream.


	4. Let it Be Known that Damian Thought This was a Bad Idea II

The Team had expanded their research into more forms of magical weapons, enlisting the help of Zatanna and Dr. Fate. Constantine was nowhere to be found. Using the Shaolin’s Snake Fist as a focal point, they searched for other magical weapons that could have been used to develop modern martial arts. They came across information on a collection of magical artifacts called Prodigiouses, which are said to grant the owner abilities respective to the specific animal spirits. The story corroborated what Kobra was yapping on about so the Team took particular interest in them. They could not however find any connection between these Prodigiouses and the Kobra-Venom other than the Cult of the Kobra was involved. 

This could mean two things. Either the Cult of the Kobra is only one small part in an even bigger pyramid scheme of world domination, or that the cult was only aware of the snake dagger and had total disregard for the rest. Guess which one the Team of Batman offsprings and conspiracy theorists believed happened? No one could leave well enough alone.

Damian didn’t know how their research didn’t lead them to the Miraculouses or the League of Shadows but he will take his blessings where he can. The Prodigious were rumored to have been scattered across the globe, in areas where their animal spirits thrived. They uncovered the existence of five of these prodigiouses, including the missing dagger. Their information was limited in what these actually looked like, referring to them by specific names instead. The Team had divided into four squads to maximize search and retrieval. 

Alpha Squad, consisting of Blue Beetle, SuperBoy, Spoiler, Batgirl (Oracle’s new protege) and Thirteen, was to head to Juneau, Alaska to look for what their research has called the Bear’s Paw. 

Beta Squad was to head to Serengeti, Tanzania in search of the Lion’s Head. The members were Red Robin, Raven, Wonder Girl, El Dorado and Static. 

Gamma Squad was sent to Kyoto in Japan to find the Dragon’s Claw. Gamma Squad was Nightwing, Halo, Robin, Ms. Martian and Kid Flash.

Delta Squad, members being Huntress, Arrowette, Beast Boy, Signal and Starfire, was sent to the Amazons in Brazil. They were tasked with finding the Monkey’s Tail. 

Oracle would be stationed at the Hub computers, monitoring surveillance, tracking all the missions and relaying information to each squad. Zetatubes would only work in Kyoto and in the outskirts of the Amazons. Tracking and finding the Snake’s Fang, and whoever stole it, was set for a later date. Damian prayed for never.

The squads were set to head out by the end of the week, giving each enough time to prepare and set up travel and rest accommodations. This was not going to be a quick and easy mission that only lasted a few hours due to the lack of actual information to base off. Again, Damian refused to be of help here. Three of the squads had magic users and the Team was hoping for some magical essence to be traced. Delta had Beast Boy and they hoped he could talk to the animals to see if they knew anything. Yeah, this mission was multiple shots in the dark but the Team was not taking any chances. Also the week would give the younger members of the team time to find believable cover stories to tell their parents since, you know, the League, and League-adjacents, no longer had jurisdiction in  _ any _ of these places. One day, Lex Luthor is going to have to pay for all this and Damian hopes he gets to be the one to bash the fucker’s face in. 

Anyways, there were several questions that went unanswered amongst all this planning. The first was what they planned to do with all these artifacts. Destroy them? Keep them in Justice League vaults? It’s one thing to keep potentially dangerous weapons out of the wrong hands, but this plan felt very colonistic in execution; removing what could potentially be sacred artifacts from the local culture because they thought it was unprotected there left a bad taste in Damian’s mouth. Clearly, he wasn’t the only one who thought so as Thirteen voiced these very concerns. The other younger members were of similar opinion. Static and Signal looked particularly miffed and wouldn’t look anyone in the eye. 

“Well,” Nightwing looked like he didn’t account for that in his planning. No one seemed to have an intelligent answer to that question and exchanged semi-awkward glances. He was honestly surprised at this, expecting a firm pushback at the concerns. This wasn’t the first time the Team made morally compromising decisions so Damian was confused at the sudden hesitation. He knew why the younger members would be concerned about the ethics. But he held no such understanding for the members of  _ Batman Inc.  _ or those who faked their own deaths for the sake of the mission. The sudden acquisition of a moral compass which prevented a solid answer was ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.

But then again, most things in this life are. Zatanna assured that if they did find any of these Prodigiouses, she and Constantine would work to find a proper way to keep them out of nefarious hands without robbing the locals of their culture. She obviously didn’t believe what she was saying. Neither did anyone else but who was paying attention to that detail? Noone, apparently. And she mentioned Constantine who was off doing whatever it was that he does when he’s skiving off of official Justice League duties. He was  _ supposed  _ to be here, being a highly trained magic user with impressive tracking skills and all. But he wasn’t. He wished wherever that bastard is, he’s having a horrible time. 


	5. Did Marinette Miss Her Own Wedding? I

Constantine was having a horrible time, as far as Marinette could tell. His phone kept ringing, which he was pointedly ignoring, and he looked more and more frustrated as he skimmed through one of his many grimoires. He was also very sober. Maybe that had something to do with it.

After Marinette’s little excursion out with Plagg the previous night, Constantine joined her and her grandfather and explained the lore behind the Renlings and what they were capable of. Marinette was already over it. It’s one thing to be magical guardians of one set magical gods, but animal spirits that transform the wielder into the respective animal is borderline ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. And Constantine wants her to find them. Why not the Justice League? Or their team of proteges? Well, apparently, Constantine has a healthy distrust of the Justice League and magic they are unfamiliar with. Something about a mystical house no longer existing because somebody was suspicious. They fucked around and found out, as Plagg so eloquently put it. She didn’t know how she felt about aiding Constantine in his paranoia.

Anyways, Marinette was now Constantine’s go-to whenever he wanted to keep things away from the JL. She would have said no like a reasonable person, but she was at least getting more magical training and could actually use some of the spells in the Miraculous grimoire. Speaking of which, the grimoire that Constantine was hunching over was supposed to help them in finding the other Prodigiouses. The Kwamis were surprisingly unhelpful as they have never heard of the Prodigiouses or Renlings. 

After what could have been hours of grueling translating and spellwork, Constantine had finally figured out the location of the eight total Renlings and what their prodigiouses looked like. While Marinette and Master Fu began scheming appropriate retrieval plans, Constantine went to answer his many missed calls.

“What?!” Well that sounded concerning. Constantine looked ready to pull his hair out from scalp with tweezers. Whatever news he just received must have been awful for him to lose his composure like this. Good.

“You lot are planning to do what now?” Oh, was this JL business? Should Marinette be listening to this, albeit one-sided, conversation?

“And why do you all need to do this?” 

“Don’t give me that attitude. I’m working on something important.”

“Yes it is important, Zatanna. Please don’t let that group of League Juniors do this.”

“You even got me saying ‘please.’ No I can not tell you why”

“Well what do you mean you can’t trust me?!” This was starting to sound serious. The popcorn that Wayzz brought was also making this ten times more entertaining. 

“Zatanna-” Oh he got cut off. Serves him right.

“Fine, be that way.” Constantine forcefully ended the call and was pouting like a child. 

Marinette didn’t know if she should ask anything but she had the feeling it was related to the prodigiouses and tracking them. Were the League getting involved? It would explain his desperation to not have them interfere. 

“I can’t believe them.” Looks like Marinette didn’t have to make the decision after all. He was going to rant about it.

“What can’t you believe, Constantine?” Her grandfather appeared equally as curious.

“The Team are going to try and track down the prodigiouses. Luckily, they only think there are five rather than eight.” He paused to run his hands through his already disheveled hair. “I don’t know which five they’re tracking. Also, they probably know you have the Snake’s Fang.”

“Pardon?” Marinette doesn’t know what she would do if she was on the Justice League’s most wanted.

“Zatanna didn’t outright say it, but Kobra probably told them it was taken from him. That’s probably how they knew about the others too. Thanks for that.”

“First of all, I didn’t even know what these things were so don’t blame me. Second of all, this could have all been avoided if you just told them!” Marinette did not appreciate the blame being put on her for the League’s involvement. She wasn’t done ripping Constantine a new one yet either. “Especially considering the fact that you  _ knew  _ that their secondary team had a mission there. UN rules or not. But no! You wanted to keep all your magical secrets to yourself. So don’t blame me for the consequences of your own actions.” She was fuming at this point, probably overreacting, but she was tired of cleaning up after people who won’t so much as thank her. 

The ensuing silence was deafening and eyes that weren’t on Marinette were on Constantine. He looked rather surprised at Marinette’s show of spine, probably forgetting that she was born and raised in the League of Shadows. He never will again if he keeps pushing his luck. 

Fu cleared his throat, probably clogged from the awkward tension. “Well, now that that’s all dealt with, do you know what your next move is Constantine? Do we actively hinder the League for the sake of your own peace of mind or do you talk to them and work collaboratively with them?” 

Constantine, who was still doing his best fish impersonation since Marinette—no,  _ Mei Fu _ —dragged him for everything he’s worth, tried to string together an answer. 

“I still think it’s best we don’t involve the Justice League with this. We should try to intervene and cut off their attempts of retrieving the prodigiouses.” He sounded like a child trying to convince their parents that they didn’t break the expensive vase. Very pitiful and very unconvincing. 

“Fine.” Pardon? Did her grandfather just agree? “We’ll help you keep the prodigiouses and the Renlings away from the Justice League.” Wow. Okay. So he’s just agreeing with him. Three guesses as to who will actually be the one to retrieve them. Wonderful.

Groaning with the weight of a thousand suns, Marinette also voiced her consent. The Kwamis were silent throughout this, not expressing their opinions. Except for Trixx, who had periodically rolled his eyes so hard Marinette would have been concerned he had popped a few blood vessels, if he had any. 

They spent the rest of the week planning and convincing her parents that she wasn’t in danger with her grandfather. They agreed that Marinette would retrieve the Dragon’s Claw first. Despite Brazil being closer, the Monkey’s tail would be harder to find in the dense forestry so they didn’t want to waste time on an extended search until much later. 

  
  


If you were to ask Marinette, the week was not enough to prepare. She made arrangements to stay with the Tsurugi family and convinced Kagami to help her in the mission. Her mother would be providing them with non-miraculous weapons as a back-up. Lady Tomoe was too understanding of her daughter being a magic-wielding superhero in Marinette’s opinion. Not one to look a gifted horse in the mouth, Marinette did not make any comments about the very impressive artillery of weapons. She chose a pair of double broadswords while Kagami stuck to a katana. Kagami also had the Dragon and the Ladybug prepared while Marinette stuck to the Tiger and Horse. Plagg didn’t want to miss out on the action and planned to tag along again. Wayzz made an off-handed comment about Plagg’s sixth sense for chaos and his recent desire to accompany Marinette on these missions. Overthinking whatever that was supposed to mean had cost Marinette six hours of sleep. 

While everything had been physically prepared, Marinette had yet to cope with the whole ‘going behind the backs of the Justice League because Constantine was paranoid’ thing. But this will not be the worst thing she has done. She also has the godsend, Kagami, to pull her out of any impending mental spirals. Now all that’s left is to actually get the Dragon’s Claw.

According to Constantine, the Dragon’s Claw was located inside the dojo of a martial arts master, O Sensei. Kagami, to be referred to as Tonbo, meaning Dragonfly, was to guard the perimeter for any individuals who could get in the way, while Marinette, codenamed Tigerlily with this combination of miraculouses, was to find the Dragon’s Claw, camouflaged by the tiger miraculous, and teleport them both back out. It was simple enough in planning and should be simple enough in execution. Even if the sensei of the dojo was to be made aware of their presence, They were expecting the element of surprise to give them an advantage. You know, outside of Marinette’s assassin training. So, yeah the plan was simple.

Except for the part where a group of the young Justice League heroes were already there negotiating with whom she assumed was O sensei. She recognized Kid Flash, Robin and Nightwing. The two women with them were unfamiliar. She also found the Dragon’s Claw in the sensei’s hand. She was positioned on a tree branch looking into a window in the room. If she timed this right, she could grab the necklace and portal out of the room to Tonbo and then portal back to the Tsurugi residence. That plan carries the risk of being seen but the pay-off should be worth it.

Poised to leap from the branch, Tigerlily steadied her breathing and prepared to call on the Horse’s Voyage. Still camouflaged, she jumped through the window and summoned the portal, about to grab for the necklace. Except she grabbed nothing and was suspended in the air. 

Who she knew now was Ms. Martian was using her telekinetic abilities to suspend her. Kid Flash sped his way over and quickly tied her, the contact breaking the camouflage charm. They must have figured she would appear at one of the locations eventually and planned a contingency plan for her appearance. The martian hasn’t read her mind yet, so maybe they thought she was non-hostile. That thought wouldn’t last long however as Tonbo emerged from the portal and, using the Flame Dragon, took down Ms. Martian. Tigerlily used the distraction to undo the bindings and get in a fighting stance. Nightwing and Robin were protecting O sensei while Kid Flash and the other woman charged at the two. 

Kid Flash was circling the two faster and tighter, corralling them together. Tigerlily drew for her broadswords and slashed the old floor boards. Kicking them in Kid Flash’s path, she knocked him off balance and thumped him the back of the head with the butt of her blade, knocking him down. Tonbo called for her Storm Dragon to subdue her opponent, who was also knocked down, then strung up both with the Ladybug yoyo. Tigerlily began a steady approach to the two batboys. She was ready to attack first but Nightwing got the upper hand. He drew his escrima sticks and swiped for Tigerlily’s head. She blocked with one sword and jump kicked to his chest, missing him entirely as he had crouched to sweep her legs from underneath her. Rolling out of the fall, Tigerlily slashed for his rising back but he intercepted with his other stick. He turned to face her and barrelled his full strength into her. They crashed into the nearby wall and at a standstill.

Tonbo was caught in a clash of katanas with Robin, neither side giving way to the other. If Tigerlily was more conscious of their fight than her own, she would have noticed familiar fighting techniques that were ingrained in her since birth. Alas, her attention was on the blue bird in front of her. Using his force that kept her against the wall, She double kicked him in the chest, forcing him away. Robin and Tonbo had broken away from each other and Tonbo aimed to stab Nightwing in the leg. Nonfatally of course,  _ she  _ wasn’t an ex-assassin as far as Tigerlily knew. Right? 

Anyways, her attack switched up the fight as now Tigerlily tried to dodge under Robin's incoming blade. Sliding on her knees, she reached to where O sensei was situated with the Dragon’s Claw. Frustrated with the night’s turn of events and forgetting all sense of pleasantries, Tigerlily tried to grab for the necklace. The business end of a katana was swiftly placed under her jaw. One wrong move meant game over.

“What do you want with the Dragon’s Claw?” Robin sounded like he was holding back from saying something. 

“An acquaintance of mine wishes for you all to not have it. I am merely doing him a favor, Tweety Bird.” Where did  _ that  _ nickname come from? She must have been internally catastrophizing more than she thought she was if she was actually trying to  _ flirt  _ her way out of this. Tonbo’s exasperation was made loud and clear with that answering sigh.

“Flattery gets you nowhere, Mei.” Robin’s arm twitched at that.

“Wait, you know her?” “You know him?” Nightwing’s and Tonbo’s voices overlapped but Tigerlily registered none of it as her ears were ringing with spiked emotions she thought she had buried years ago. Only a few people knew her by that name. Kagami, Chloe, Luka and Adrien were the only people outside of the League of Shadows who knew her by that name. Even then, there was only one person her age with the Shadows who knew her. But it couldn’t be him. He was supposed to be dead. There was no way in hell that the Boy Wonder holding a katana to her throat was—

“Damian?!”


	6. Did Marinette Miss Her Own Wedding? II

“Damian?!” Okay. Marinette was about to lose her mind. There is  _ no  _ way her first friend who was  _ supposed to be dead _ is here pointing the business end of a katana at her throat. Nope. No way. The universe could not be so cruel. Yet,  _ he _ didn’t seem surprised that she was alive. Did he know this whole time? And never looked for her?

“How do you know her, Robin?” Nightwing was trying to stay level headed and figure out this whole situation and Marinette would applaud his effort if her lizard brain would actually work. Robin, from what could be discerned from behind the mask, looked rather embarrassed. Which was an interesting reaction given the rather violent history they shared.

“She is, or rather, was my fiancée back in the Shadows.” His whisper echoed in the expectant room and-  _ Pardon _ ? Did he say engaged? Since when was she actually  _ engaged  _ to him? Did she miss a ceremony or something?

“Since when were we engaged?” She was only cognizant enough to voice her immediate thoughts. Okay, sure. His grandfather had  _ plans  _ to form a union between the two but the old bastard lacked any actual efficiency to properly bind them. Robin bristled like a porcupine at the question. He probably wasn’t expecting her to ask that but it was a valid question. “And how did you recognize me?”

“I recognized your Tiger transformation and I saw you using the Horse back on Santa Prisca when you attacked Kobra.” He sighed saying this as if it were the most obvious observation. Newsflash, asshole, it’s not because, you know, magical protection of identities and all? “More importantly. What do you mean ‘since when’? My grandfather wanted us to create heirs for his plans and-”

“Yeah, yeah. I know all about his plans and grotesque desire to marry ten-year-olds off.” She slowly pushed his katana away as she turned to face the rest of them. She noticed their martian teammate was slowly waking up. “But that’s all they were. Plans. Nothing legally, magically or officially binding or whatever actually happened between us. Kwami knows your grandfather had no sense of urgency when dealing with future world domination plans.”   
  
It should not be possible for someone of Boy Wonder’s complexion to be turning that shade of red. But lo and behold. It was kind of cute and Marinette refused to dedicate more thoughts on the subject matter.

“You mean we were never officially bound to each other?” God, his voice sounded so small she was almost worried that he had mentally regressed back to the heir-in-training who was still tripping over his own cloak.

“Only in theory. The day we were supposed to begin the preparations was the same day that traitor staged the coup.” Marinette wondered if he had been referring to her as his fiancée to people. She doesn’t know how she would feel about that.   
  


Nightwing’s ensuing laugh rang in the dojo. He somehow looked like he was enjoying the moment while fearing for his life. It was an interesting combination. Tonbo looked ready to leave Marinette to her own devices but stayed out of dedication to the mission. She deserved a cake for dealing with the fantastical woes of Marinette’s life after all. 

“This is not a laughing matter, Nightwing. She and her partner are currently trying to intercept our mission and you’re here doing a bad Joker impression.” Oh, so her worries about Damian’s mental state were for nought then. He seemed perfectly normal now. But he brought up an important point. The mission. Marinette needed to shelf the tidbit about her friend not being dead for later. Now, she had to steal a magical piece of jewelry to prevent it from getting into said not-dead friend’s hands. Did she mention he wasn’t dead? 

“Well excuse me. This is the most flustered I’ve ever seen you, Baby Bird. Besides, we need to know all about your connection to her and her connection to the Shadows.” Wait. Did they think she was still working with the Shadows? That might be cause for concern. Future Marinette will obviously deal with that when appropriate.

At this point, the second woman on the heroes’ team and Kid Flash were wide awake. Both were still tied up in the Ladybug yoyo and were hopefully not getting out anytime soon. The martian still looked a little worse for wear, the Fire Dragon had quite the effect on her. 

“Wait, back up a bit.” Kid Flash looked too invested for someone who was just unconscious. “You said you saw her use some horse back on Santa Prisca when she attacked Kobra? And you didn’t say anything? Dude, did you know she had the dagger this whole time?” All eyes turned to the rather frigid Boy Wonder yet he couldn’t look anyone in the eye. That was enough of an answer to the speedster’s questions. He had to have been intentionally avoiding her if he wouldn’t even tell his team that he knew the girl who had taken one of the magical artifacts they were currently looking for.

“Tigerlily, let’s get what we came here for and leave. You can have an identity crisis later.” Tonbo’s monotonous voice was a balm to Marinette’s mind and spurred her into action. Since she had dropped one of her broadswords when reaching for the necklace the first time, she extended the claws in her free hand. Using the extra length to her appendage, she swiftly plucked the necklace from the old sensei’s hands as most of the attention had yet to leave Robin. Rolling from her sudden lunge she stood on her hands and kicked at Robin into Nightwing. Tonbo used the others’ distraction to call for the Wind Dragon and filled the room with an opaque mist. Marinette used her enhanced senses to find and grab Tonbo’s hand and rushed into a newly created portal, away from the dojo.

The two emerged in the den back at the Tsurugi residence. The adults and other Kwamis swarmed the two girls who had transformed and remained lying on the ground. Before anyone could get a word in, Marinette threw the Dragon’s Claw at one of the adults—she couldn’t tell you which one if her life depended on it— and ran to Kagami’s room. As she made her escape, she faintly registered Kagami trailing her and Plagg retelling the events of the night, he had smartly remained hidden during the whole ordeal.

Marinette rushed to the en suite bathroom in the room and stripped off the light cardigan she had worn under the magical transformation. Still mostly clothed, she turned on the fancy overhead shower and sat under the slowly warming spray. The feeling of the shower raining on her reminded her of the waterfalls she used to meditate under back with the Shadows. It was her preferred way to calm her mind down. Kagami silently joined her, only removing her socks and shoes, and pressed Marinette’s still frame to her side. That’s when the sobbing started.

Marinette had spent the first two years after the Slade attack grieving someone who she thought was dead. She had grieved for her father, her mother and Lady Talia, who wasn’t always the most pleasant but was still important in Marinette’s upbringing. She had grieved for the only child that she had known on the compound. And he wasn’t even dead. Could the same be said for her parents? She couldn’t ask back then in the dojo, too much was at stake and she hadn’t allowed herself to open up that old scar. But now? Now she was done with this part of her mission and could revert back to the grieving child who had just lost everything. The whole night had gone from a regular mission she didn’t want to do in the first place to an emotional dumpster fire in the matter of seconds. And all because he called her by her name. The name that took her three years to grow passed. When she was adopted by the Dupain-Chengs she took that as her chance to become someone new. Someone who was a product of her own decisions. Thirteen-year-old Mei Fu had an awol grandfather who was lucky to have not gotten deported and no one else. Thirteen-year-old Marinette Dupain-Cheng, however, had loving,  _ alive  _ parents and a bright future that didn’t involve doing someone else’s bidding. Or she was supposed to. The universe had a cruel sense of humour and right now Marinette—Mei—was the butt of the biggest and longest running joke yet.

So she sat there under the shower, in the arms of one of her closest friends who knew her darkest secrets, and cried the stress of the last seven years away. Fuck, when was the last time she did that?


	7. Ridiculous, Utterly Ridiculous. A Chloe Bourgeois Interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on tumblr :) it's legends-live-in-memories
> 
> comments are welcomed and appreciated i would love to know how yall feel about this.

When Chloe was waiting for the mission briefing after Delta Squad had returned from Santa Prisca, she was not prepared to hear about the Cult of the Kobra being involved in magical weapons. She was also not prepared to hear about some thief disappearing in a blue portal with said magical weapon. And oh, she felt a particularly intense headache coming on from that last part. One that usually arose when a certain Lady Luck was involved.  _ Christ, Dupain-Cheng, what did you get yourself involved in this time? _ She especially wasn’t prepared to be assigned to Alpha Squad to go to Alaska of all places for this Bear’s Paw thing as part of the hunt for a collection of  _ more  _ magical artifacts.

Not being prepared for any of this was her own fault really, though she will never admit that to anyone. After being the Queen of her hive back in Paris and working with the Batfam for the better part of a year, Chloe should have been prepared for everything short of sudden Earth implosion. Yet here she is, the new Batgirl, frazzled at this whole debacle. Before she goes further into how this situation was utterly ridiculous, understanding how she got involved in Gotham's nightlife was important. 

So, It was a year into Hawkmoth’s reign of terror when Chloe officially became a part of Ladybug and Chat Noir’s team. They decided to capitalize on the fact that Chloe’s identity was public knowledge and used her as PR management. She was the reachable go between from the citizens to the heroes, and from the mayor to the heroes as well. International heroes were kept out and information regarding everything magical was kept under lock and key and prohibited from leaving the city. Carapace and Rena Rouge were still temporary call ons and the others were benched permanently. The trio’s dynamic was rough at first but everything fell into place with the inclusion of Viperion and Ryuko. For the next two years, the young heroes, dubbed Paris’s Finest, were working like a perfect well oiled machine. The permanent five had already revealed themselves to each other at this point and were closing in on Hawkmoth and Mayura. Until they weren’t. A particularly bloody akuma ironically named Peacemaker, that had them calling on Rena and Carapace for added strength, took  _ three days _ to defeat. Even though the Miraculous Cure turned everything back to normal, Paris was left mentally scarred and it bred a horrible succession of akuma victims who couldn’t cope from the temporary carnage of Peacemaker. It was a rough two months. Therapists were outsourced from Spain and Italy and people who were willing to start their lives over moved out of the city. Some left the country entirely. 

But the team pulled through. 

Then walks in one Audrey Bourgeois. She was convinced that her only daughter would be safer with her. Out of Paris. Her father agreed of course, that man hadn’t had an original thought since his wedding night, and Chloe’s opinion on the matter was deftly ignored. Now, logically, that would mean that Audrey would have moved her daughter to a safer city anywhere in the world. Nope. Audrey was working on some business in between New York City and Metropolis and since she was traveling to both quite frequently, she had settled down in the middle. Gotham City, the only major city that resided between her two work locations. It was also the crime capital of the world, but don’t worry. Audrey chose the really nice neighbourhood that had an almost 0% crime rate. She thought it would be the perfect place for Chloe to live, far away from Paris and untouched by the local crime of Gotham. Kagami had told Chloe that she thought that Audrey chose Gotham to try and scare her out of the hero business without actually hurting her. Well the jokes on her.

Leaving her self-proclaimed hive behind was hard for Chloe. She had grown from the spoiled brat and found her place in society protecting it. Clearly, her efforts were recognized outside of Paris. Leaving Gotham Academy for the day, she was approached by a woman named Barbara Gordon. This Barbara told her how impressed she was with Chloe’s work in Paris and offered an opportunity to continue that work in Gotham. She didn’t seem to know exactly how Chloe became Queen Bee, but knowing even that much was impressive as there was a substantial government imposed ban on information leaving Paris since the beginning of Hawkmoth’s reign. As far as everyone beyond Paris knew, magic was not involved, just regular local crime, and the Miraculous Cure held uphold that narrative. Before Chloe could leave this woman and avoid being potentially kidnapped, the woman pulled out a batarang. She gave her the batarang that had a note attached to it and then left. The note gave instructions to go to a certain address on that following Friday at 8pm. The address was revealed to be the infamous Wayne Manor. Chloe took a leap of faith and went. 

The next year was history. Chloe was introduced to the Wayne family and, by extension, the Bat Family. She spent that year learning to be the new Batgirl, trained under Barbara herself. And while all that was great, a weight sat in her heart. She never told the Bat Family the truth about Paris and she couldn’t tell her Parisian team about this because it was not just her secret to tell. She knew that if she told the others back in Paris, it would take Marinette less time to figure out the rest of the Batfam than she would use to figure out her lucky charms. She couldn’t take that risk, especially since the Bat family didn’t know the identities of Paris’s Finest. She was extremely glad that the team back in Paris had finally dealt with their local moth problem before it reached international waters. Small mercies and magic and all that. She still spoke to her Parisian friends and visited during holidays but her new priority was on Gotham and whatever work the Justice League dragged her into.

Which brings everything back to this current mission. Chloe, along with the rest of Alpha Squad, is currently in Juneau in Alaska looking for the Bear’s Paw. The squad is banking on Thirteen’s affinity for magic to help them find it. So far her magical intuitions had them lodging near the national forest. The bear population was heavily concentrated there. They planned to wait until night so they could sneak in and search the property. 

At nightfall, Alpha Squad, consisting of Blue Beetle, Super Boy, Thirteen, Spoiler and herself, headed into the forest. The forest was huge and even with Super Boy and Blue Beetle flying overhead, they still only covered about ten percent of the area. Super Boy couldn’t use his super speed nor his x-ray vision because he had no idea what he was even looking for. Chloe really wished she was back in the cabin at that point and under a hot shower. But until Spoiler called it a night, they were stuck out looking. Stupid seniority rules. Who made her leader of the squad anyways? She ignored her conscious that was answering her with Nightwing. 

After four hours of looking and Thirteen trying and failing to find a magical signal, they had the boys fly them back. So much for hoping for a quick mission. 

Chloe relished in the warmth of the cabins while she waited for the other squads to join the mission debriefing call. She was reclined in one of the couches with a moisturizing sheet mask on. Thirteen, now Traci, was still trying to find a way to locate the Bear’s Paw. Zatanna had lent her one her spellbooks that should help. Jon and Jaime were in the kitchenette preparing a late snack for everyone. Stephanie was blasting one of her Frank Ocean playlists and setting up the computers for the virtual briefing. It was probably another two hours before they got a notification for the call. All the members of Alpha Squad had gathered and watched as the other squads joined in. 

Stephanie spoke on behalf of Alpha squad and somehow managed to make over four hours of fruitless searching sound like the best mission ever. The reality was that they saw bears, bears, trees, bears. And look, more bears. Chloe was begrudgingly impressed but she will never give the other blonde that satisfaction. Beta squad was less unsuccessful. They hadn’t found the Lion’s Head but they did hear rumors about someone who protected one of the rural areas in Tanzania from human traffickers and was reported to ‘scare them away with a lion’s roar that made lesser men piss themselves.’ Cassie clearly found great joy in that if the ridiculous grin she was sporting was anything to go by. Delta squad, surprisingly, actually found the Monkey’s Tail. Kori held up what looked like a bronze upper arm band that curled and flared at one end, resembling its namesake. It was simple but knowing what they knew, the Team regarded it with caution. Chloe silently turned her nose up at something so plain-looking. If they were supposed to believe that these things can transform people into animals it could at least look the part. Despite her disappointment with its appearance, she still recognized its power and was reminded of her previously owned hair comb and the miraculouses she had seen while she was akumatized as Miracle Queen.

“Does it work?” Bart interrupted her musings, directing the question to Kori and the others. 

Zatanna voiced concern about doing irreparable damage to the wearer and voted against trying it on. Other members agreed while the rest wanted to know what type of power the likes of Kobra were trying to seek. Chloe was in favor of them testing it. If it was anything like the miraculous jewels, and she had strong suspicions it was, then whoever tries it would be fine. Should be fine. She hopes. Chloe probably should have voiced about her past experiences with magic jewelry but before she could, Raven spoke up.

“If something goes wrong I can handle it. I’ll destroy the thing if I have to.” Yeah good luck with that. If Chloe was right then they would need a certain cataclysm to even scratch it. Maybe she should have Dupain-Cheng on stand-by just to be safe. Regardless, Raven’s unwavered declaration instilled faith in her capabilities in minimizing any catastrophes. And so, Kori reached to put the armband on her left bicep. Slowly. Almost comically so. Ridiculous.

When she did put it on a bright ball of light surged out of the bracelet and oh. Yeah. She totally called it. When the light disappeared nothing was in its place through the video feed. But she knew better. Delta squad’s undignified screams confirmed for her what exactly replaced the light. Everyone else was confused and on high alert from the screaming but didn’t know what was going on. Before Raven did something stupid like try to kill the possible Kwami, Chloe threw caution to the wind. She prayed Dupain-Cheng didn’t skin her for this.

“Don’t hurt it!” Chloe’s exclamation cut through the commotion like a hot knife in soft butter. Eyes darted between her and Delta squad’s screen but nobody said or did anything irrational. 

“You can see this thing too right, Chlo?” Virgil looked almost hopeful that he and his squad weren’t hallucinating.

“No I can’t but I know it’s there. And I doubt it likes being called a ‘thing.’” Her haughty huff both confused and eased the entire team. Her lack of concern was properly more reassuring than she originally thought it would be.

“I also do not like being called an ‘it’ either.” The soft voice interrupted whatever anyone was going to say.

Ignoring everyone else, Chloe began to speak to the maybe-Kwami. “You’re a Kwami right?” She really hoped she didn’t offend them with that question.

“No I am not. I am a Renling. The Renling of the Monkey, Raii.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you, Raii. I’m Chloe. Now if you could explain to everyone what it is you do that would be much appreciated.” She finally looked at everyone else to gauge their reactions. One look at Dick and Damian and she knew she had a  _ lot  _ of explaining to do. Great. Problems for future Chloe.

“Maybe when I get some bananas first. I’m starving.” The following silence was kind of awkward. Calling on her Queen Bee strength, she once again took charge of the situation. “You heard them. Get them some bananas.” Tim was the first to pick his jaw off the floor and went to get a banana. In the meantime, Zatanna explained to Delta that they couldn’t see this Renling thing and Virgil began to describe it. He looked slightly concerned at Kori’s claim that it looked like a ij’an from the third moon of Loesu. Whatever that meant. Aliens. It looked like a small monkey with green fur on its head. There. Garfield tried to turn into it to show everyone but he shockingly couldn’t. Lines had to be drawn somewhere regarding what actually counts as an animal she supposes. 

Tim returned and everyone watched as the banana disappeared through their screens. Now fed, Raii explained that they could grant his wielder a protective suit, turn them into a monkey and grant them increased intelligence. Similar to the miraculouses in that regard. They told Kori both command phrases. Everyone watched with bated breath as Kori called onto her transformation. 

“Raii, guide me.” Kind of cheesy, but she liked it better than  _ buzz on. _ Don’t tell Pollen.

Kori now wore brown cargo pants with fur at the cuffs, a gold sleeveless halter crop top and black gloves that extended up to upper arms. Her hair was pulled back into a low ponytail braid with the ends fluffed. The Prodigious had turned into a broader band around her bicep with five stripes running vertically on it and it had a charm that looked like a monkey’s tail end. Oh and she had an actual monkey’s tail to match. Not half bad, she admits. Before anyone could fully process her new attire, however, she called onto the transmutative power and turned into a rather large monkey. She looked like one of Garfield’s transformations but was brown with green head fur like how Virgil described the Renling. The Prodigious grew to fit her now larger arm. 

Again, no one knew what to say. Monkey-Kori didn’t do anything so everyone assumed the magic hadn’t turned her feral. Well Chloe hoped at least. She had a mental timer counting down five minutes before Kori turned back to her previous state. She called off that transformation as well. Cue the awkward silence again.

“Before we unpack  _ all of that, _ ” Dick’s sharp voice and clap cut into the air. Through the video feed, Chloe saw Damian shoot Dick a look that would probably set dry grass on fire. In true older sibling fashion, Dick ignored the look as if he wasn’t being threatened with all types of violence. He shot the camera a look that spelt trouble for everyone who encountered it. Chloe felt her Dupain-Cheng brand of headache coming on and feared for the worst. 

Dick continued looking too smug for the current situation.

“Why don’t we cut to Gamma squad over here. Damian has a lot to tell us about his friend, Mei Fu, after all.”

_ Oh Fuck _ .


	8. Damian Doesn’t Have Any Brothers, Just Traitors, Sisters and Whatever the Hell Bourgeois Is I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehehe follow me on tumblr @legends-live-in-memories

“Why don’t we cut to Gamma squad over here? Damian has a lot to tell us about his friend, Mei Fu, after all.” Famous last words of one Richard Grayson. 

“Who is that?” Reyes asked. Who is she? ‘Who is that?’ Jaime Reyes asks. Oh only one of the most dangerous people Damian has ever met. Not particularly violent, but still dangerous. Chaos followed her like a moth to a flame.

“She was some thief who intercepted our mission. She and her partner managed to get away with the Dragon’s Claw. Damian and her seem to go  _ way _ back. Right, Damian?” Damian could not fathom how Grayson thought this was the perfect time to try and embarrass him and bring up his connections to someone who was a potential magical thief just because that someone happened to be a girl. 

Well, her interest in the Prodigious  _ is  _ a cause for concern and should be examined. Right, he can divert the conversation from the mere factor of him knowing of her existence. He can do that. Maybe. But also, how the fuck does Bourgeois seem to know more about the Prodigious than anyone else? What is  _ she  _ hiding? And why does she look like a deer caught in headlights at the name—

“Wait a damn minute,” Damian tried to take control of this before Grayson got the whole Team off track. “Bourgeois,” yeah; deer, meet headlights. “Do you recognize the name Mei Fu? You look like someone just swung a mallet at your face.” He will never deny the satisfaction he got from the sheer panic that flashed in her eyes.

He saw her glance around at her current squadmates and then looked at everyone through the screens, gaping stupidly like a fish. She closed her eyes and took a steadying breath as if she was about to unveil unholy secrets. If Mei was involved, they probably were. 

“I do know her in fact. But I’m not at liberty to speak of my connection to her, Wayne.” The resulting glare was almost impressive, he admits. His annoyed huff went ignored as she continued. “What I can say, after witnessing the use of the Prodigious, is that I am familiar with the magic used. She uses it too and that’s probably why Du- I mean Mei, is interested in them. Am I wrong to assume that you know of that magic as well, Boy Wonder?”

Was that a challenge? Was she trying to bait him into revealing what he knows so that she can continue keeping her secrets? Two can play at this game, Bourgeois. 

“If what you say is true, then yes I am aware of the magic that she uses, however, clearly you know more about this than I do since you were able to recognise it immediately. What business did you have with her and with that magic?” He noticed Drake went off screen and was on the phone, probably secretly fishing for more information out of Gordon. Good. Expose her. The others looked lost at what was intentionally being omitted by the two bat kids. Bourgeois was clenching her teeth so hard Damian worried she would crack one of them. 

“Tell us about Paris, Chloe.” Gordon’s voice suddenly cut through the intense staring contest the two had gotten themselves into. All eyes turned to the original Batgirl at her command. Those outside of the Gotham residents looked confused at the order. The Bat Family only knew that she was an outed vigilante from Paris, everyone else knew nothing at all. But why would that be relevant now?

Wait a damn minute. If Bourgeois was familiar with the Miraculous, then she probably used it in Paris, meaning Mei was in Paris and that’s how they knew each other. Paris was also very tight lipped about their noticeable rise in criminal activity. But what was she doing in Paris? Is that where she ended up after the attack? Damian knew his mother had kept tabs on her for about a year but she never told him anything beyond that she was alive. Does his mother know about the Prodigious and is having Mei act as her retriever? Is Mei and her grandfather still with the Shadows? Who was the girl with her back at the dojo? The longer he thought about this, the more questions he had and even less answers. This was becoming too much for what was supposed to be a simple mission.

A quick glance at Bourgeois was enough to have even Damian concerned. She looked like she swallowed her own tongue. She took another steadying breath in preparations of spilling her guts. Whatever happened in Paris clearly haunted her and Damian almost felt sorry for throwing her to the wolves. Almost. Not quite though. 

“When I was fourteen, Paris was introduced to a magical terrorist called Le Papillon, or Hawkmoth. He had the power to turn people into champions he called akumas to temporarily do his bidding. He chose these akumas by targeting anyone feeling any particularly strong emotion.” Tears were beginning to well in her eyes. Through the screens he saw her twine her fingers together. “I had caused the first akuma, and several others over the years. I had embarrassed a classmate about his crush and rather than it being a regular day of Bitch Bourgeois in action,—” Kent’s snort earned him a punch from Brown “—he turned into this giant rock monster.” The tears were flowing freely now. Everyone had enough common sense to not point it out. If something made  _ the hardass Chloe Bourgeois  _ cry, then it must have been world endingly daunting. Everyone watched silently, the jovial, teasing atmosphere long gone.

“This was the first time something like this ever happened and this was the first time we were introduced to what was later dubbed Paris’s Finest. Two local superheroes made their debut as La Coccinelle and Le Chat Noir, Ladybug and Black Cat.” The listening silence was deafening. Damian figured she was glossing over some facts for her own sake rather than to be intentionally secretive. Reliving trauma is never fun for anyone anyways. “Over time, new heroes would show up and I wanted to be a part of that. I never truly understood what it took to become a hero at first, and I almost hurt a lot of people permanently because of it. Hell, people died during normal akuma attacks, but Ladybug’s Miraculous Cure brought them back. She  _ always  _ brought them back. So I never truly grasped how much rested on their shoulders until I was in the thick of it.” She paused to take some calming breaths and Damian wasn’t sure that he was even breathing. Resurrecting the dead? What went on in Paris? How did Mei handle all of that? How involved was she?

“For some unknown reason, Ladybug trusted me to be by side with the rest of her team. We worked well even with my identity available on every Parisian piece of media. Then there was this one akuma. Peacemaker. It was awful; none of you need to know the full details of  _ that shitshow _ .” She huffed and wiped her eyes. Brown, at some point, had gotten a glass of water for her and offered it.

“We defeated the akuma obviously. But my mother thought Paris was becoming too dangerous and shipped me off to Gotham—yeah I know— under pretenses of family bonding to poorly hide the fact that she just wanted to scare me out of the whole crime fighting scene.”

“Jokes on her,” Allen’s quip was well received and it managed to lighten the very solemn air. Even Bourgeois chuckled slightly.

“Yeah, the jokes on her. Anyways, while I was here in Gotham getting stalked by bats, my team back in Paris was finally able to track down Hawkmoth and his assistant. Most of them went their separate ways after, even leaving the country. But our—their—job was done and Paris is no longer a super city. That’s what happened in Paris. I’m still technically bound by magical law to not give out any more information.” 

Damian didn’t know what to say to all that. Who would? He hopes Grayson is feeling like an ass right now for his initial non sequitur. His stupid attempt at a dig at Damian ended up making Bourgeois cry and everything. That’s what he gets for trying to embarrass Damian.

“Was this Mei Ladybug? That’s the only conclusion that could be drawn from all this. And that doesn’t explain how you recognized the Renling even though we can’t see it through the live feed. You said this was the magic that you both used in Paris, so what does she want with the Prodigious?—” Bourgeois quickly cut off Gordon's barrel of rapidfire questions.

“I just said I’m not at liberty to say. I can explain about the situation from Paris with careful omission but anything specific is entirely off limits. But I can say that Mei is not our enemy and she probably has good reason to be collecting these Prodigious.” Bourgeois’s no tolerance attitude was almost refreshing after the tearjerker of a backstory. If Todd was here he would say that all she needed was black hair and she would be a perfect fit for Bruce Wayne’s collection of damaged children. Damian wished he didn’t have his own subconscious construct the thoughts and insights of his own siblings. It was bad enough to hear them in person. 

“So if you know her personally, would you be able to contact her? Maybe we can come to terms with an agreement.” Thomas presented an angle that was overlooked. Bourgeois had worked with her for years, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume they still kept in contact. 

“Also,” M’gann cut in, “she probably has intel on what the Cult of the Kobra’s true intentions were. If she knew they had acquired the dagger and knew to look for the Dragon’s Claw, then she probably knows of some grand scheme involving them. Whatever information she has is important.”

“She might also know of the location of the other Prodigious as well. If our little friend here doesn’t also know, that is.” Crook spoke for the first time since the beginning of the meeting. 

“Dick, you said she had a partner. Right?” After his nod of agreement, Brown turned to Bourgeois. “Does Mei have any contacts in Japan? Or someone there who could have assisted her?”

Chloe was reluctant to respond but also nodded yes. 

“Do you know who?”

“Can’t say.”

“Can’t or won’t?” From the look Bourgeois shot him, it was obvious Thomas’s question costed him ten years off his life. Shame. He was Damian’s more tolerable brother. 

“If you want to try and track Mei, why don’t you ask Wayne here? He was the one she grew up with.”

“She told you?!” Damian had obviously assumed the two had to have grown close for Mei to have trusted Bourgeois with a miraculous but to tell her about growing up in the Shadows? Did she tell her about his grandfather’s plans for their future? Did she tell her about the type of training they went under? Does he even have any secrets left to protect anymore? How much does she know? How long has she known? He decided to get an answer to that last question first. 

“How long have you known, Bourgeois?” His image was at stake here.

“Don’t get your wings in a twist, Wayne. She never referred to you by name, I doubt she knows you’re a Wayne anyways given when you arose in the public eye, but she also thought you were dead for the past seven years. I only figured it was you because you’re the only person that’s old enough to fit the boy in her stories.” That doesn’t put his mind at ease. As dignified and polished Damian likes to remind everyone that he is, Mei was the only one who saw him when he was still an actual child. She saw him trip over his cape once. Or twice. She saw him accidentally cut himself with a throwing star. If Bourgeois knew these stories his reputation was done for.

“Let’s put a pin in the whole ‘Chloe now knows perfect blackmail material of Damian’ for later. And let’s give the floor over to the man of the hour.” Curses, Drake. He is officially dead to him and he can join Grayson in the traitors’ pile.

“Like Bourgeois said, she and I grew up in the League of Shadows. Her grandfather had joined when he was younger and her father and mother were both members as well. She was born into it like I was.” Probably not the best start to instill faith in where her allegiance lays but hopefully Bourgeois’s vouch would suffice. 

“We were the only two children there so we trained alongside each other until Slade’s attack.” He tried to keep the explanation simple. “Her grandfather had a place on my grandfather’s council and she was raised to be his successor as I was to my grandfather. Ra’s planned to incorporate the magic her family used into his plans for world purity.” Before he could continue, Grayson decided to solidify himself as an enemy of Damian Wayne.

“What our boy, Damian, means is that he thought they were engaged ‘til this very day.”

_ “WHAT?!”  _

  
  



	9. Damian Doesn’t Have Any Brothers, Just Traitors, Sisters and Whatever the Hell Bourgeois Is II

“What our boy, Damian, means is that he thought they were engaged ‘til this very day.”

_ “WHAT?!”  _

“Grayson!” Damian was about to commit fratricide with over a dozen witnesses and he did not care. 

“What do you mean you thought you two were engaged, Wayne? Explain yourself. Now!” Bourgeois looked like she was ready to jump through the screen and beat him. Allen was somewhere behind him cackling and Drake looked like he had received the best news of his life. The others weren’t faring any better but their reactions were dismissible. He tsked at their sudden interest in his personal life but began to clear the air of the misconception.

“Due to the traditional nature of the Shadows, it was very obvious that our grandfathers were preparing to secure a lineage that was blessed with both magic and the Al Ghul bloodline.” He pointedly ignored Reyes’s quip about no bloodline being blessed if he was involved and continued on. “It was a plan proposed and carried out up until that second rate assassin staged the coup. Regardless of our personal feelings on the matter, it was our duty to carry out.” He paused to catch his breath and to survey the screens. He never really put thought into how he felt about the arrangement nor about how his comrades thought about him. He noticed some pitiful looks, some held slight mirth that hid their unease at the notion that children younger than ten were being raised solely for marriage and heirs. 

“We lost contact after we were separated, but my mother had kept me updated that she was alive. She never said where and I never looked into it.” Damian realised how selfish that made him sound but he rationalized that he was too busy adjusting to a new life to fixate on someone he knew was safe. “From what we heard back at the dojo, it appears no one had done the same for her and she lived under the impression that I had died during the attack. Tonight was the first contact we had with each other in seven years.” Silence covered the call as everyone took in that information. 

Koriand’r broke the slightly awkward quiet and asked the million dollar question.

“So why would she be after these Prodigous things? What’s her endgame and do we help her?”

Damian for once in his life didn’t know. Glancing at one of the screens he passed the baton to Bourgeois. “You’ve known her most recently. What do you think, Bourgeois?” 

“Like I said,  _ Wayne _ , she most definitely has good reasons for hunting these things. I trust her and child assassin or not, you all should too.” She scoffed and shifted attention to her nails like the brat she was. She rolled her eyes after a moment and continued, “The only problem is that I still can’t be the one to contact her. Not if you still want the family night time secret to stay that way.”

M'gann spoke from his left. “What do you mean by that, Chloe?”

“Simple. She never told me about her little mission there in Japan, and she doesn’t know I’m Batgirl. And before you say anything, she might be the fearless leader of Paris’ Finest and someone who I trust with my limited edition Givenchy Chantilly Lace, but I swore to Mr. Wayne that I wouldn't expose the family’s poor excuse for therapy. Exposing myself as Batgirl to contact her will undoubtedly lead to exposing the Batfam secret to a non-Justice League associate. So, Wayne, your call.” 

He saw her jibe for exactly what it was. Another challenge. Typical Bourgeois. Before he could answer her however, Gordon piped up from her screen.

“Instead of deciding tonight whether to trust her intentions or not, why not wait until she shows up at another possible location? She’s bound to come looking for them and we’re already waiting, so let’s get an idea of what her goal is and if— and I really mean if, Chloe, don’t give me that look— her plans go against the Mission then we proceed from there. Does that sound fair?”

She spoke with an air of finality that didn’t really leave room for objection. Which was just fine with Damian because he didn’t have to deal with the others trying to embarrass him based on whatever decision he made.

He would never admit it, but he was ready for a nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all,,,,,,,,,, I did NOT mean to take so long. im so sorry and the chapter is shorter than expected but its here and thats what matters.


End file.
